Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Persona 5 Great Story, But Not A Perfect Game

I really like the Persona series so I was excited for Persona 5. When I got my copy I was ready to play which leads me to the first big issue I had with the game. Atlus decided to block sharing screenshots. Apparently there was a big hullabaloo earlier about them not letting anyone share video streaming of game play or screenshots to keep the game spoiler free for others. I understand why they did it and yes, they have the right to do that. However, what happened afterwards is a bit much. They lifted the ban on sharing video of the game, but it came with all these insane rules such as you couldn't share any video past the game date of 7/7 because it would spoil the game and videos could be no more than 90 minutes long and if you did not comply with these rules you risked having a content ID issued and having your channel suspended. You still can not share screenshots as it is still blocked. This is ridiculous because the game has been out for months now and this blocking did them more harm than good. I take a lot of screenshots for this blog and I do my best to make sure nothing is spoiled and if I feel there need to be spoilers, I do add a warning about it. I know that some people don't like things spoiled for them and that is fine, but others like to know everything about things and it helps them decide if a game is worth them buying or playing. I know that watching videos of Major Slack play Elder Scrolls Skyrim and watching my husband play it were what got me interested in playing, so this heavy handed ruling of no sharing of a game that has been out for months is nonsense. I had to take a ton of photos with my phone for this post which is not a big deal, but it could have been avoided if Atlus had let up a little. I mean, this video is as much as I can show you according to their damn rules and that's just an example.

Yep, this is all you get.

Now on to the game itself. The opening credits are stylish and have a great opening song. You can select several difficulty options for the game ranging from safe to hard and you can change them any time during game play. There is also a new feature asking if you want to connect online to the Thieves Guild. This is actually pretty cool because what you can do is you can check what other players are doing and you can also call them to help you within designated dungeons. This can come in handy if you're stuck on a particular quest or not sure what to do next.

The introduction to your main character is interesting and sets up the story really well. The setting theme for Persona 5 is dark, but it's done in a way that makes you invested in the story because there are a range of topics from rebellion to politics to discovering who you are. The character design and art style of Persona 5 is eye catching and beautiful. The musical soundtrack is great too with catchy tunes that match the settings for the various areas you explore.

Exploring a side street.

Eventually the protagonist makes some new friends and they become a group known as The Phantom Thieves thanks to a mysterious cat creature named Morgana who introduces them to a place known as the Metaverse where there are shadows and then a main shadow of a person in the real world and you fight to change their heart. The dungeons are a little different in Persona 5. The main story dungeons are known as Palaces and you have a limited amount of time to complete them. If you want more level grinding there is a place known as Mementos that has several levels to it and this usually involves a lot of side quests. The battles are not random the way they were in previous Persona games. You can see the shadows now and you can actually plan out strategies to get the advantage in battle by using a hide ability so you can ambush them.

Preparing to ambush a shadow.

How you switch Personas is different too. Since you're Phantom Thieves you wear a mask. Naturally, your main character can equip multiple Personas so each Persona has a different mask. It's very easy to switch Personas during battles according to what you need. Fusion of Personas is pretty standard, but you can also fuse Personas according to levels and sacrifice a Persona to add more power to a Persona of your choice. If there is a Persona you want back, you can summon them from the registry. There are so many combinations with the fusion ability that you can create many powerful Personas.

Battling shadows with a Persona.

You can also recruit Personas during battles. You and your team can use guns in the Metaverse and there is an ability called Hold Up. You can use these to demand Personas join you, give you money, or give you items. Sometimes you have to convince them to join you by having a conversation with them or bribing them with items, but it's great trying to see what Personas you can get to join your cause. There is another ability you can use called Third Eye which allows you to find hidden items and treasure chests which can be quite useful.

Using the holdup ability to recruit a Persona.

There are social links to strengthen and different people represent the different suits of tarot cards which is standard Persona fare considering the main character is always the Fool. This is where a bit of frustration set in for me because the calendar and timing is stricter than previous Persona games. I found myself longing for characters like the ones in Persona 4 because there were quite a few characters in Persona 5 that were completely unlikable even after some of their back story was revealed. There were characters I did like, but the ones who were awful really stood out.

Often I would have to really think about who I wanted to spend time with in afternoons and evenings because I would get multiple invitations from my social links and I could only do one at a time. It could be a little daunting trying to decide who I would hang out with. This was especially true for the romance options and trying to decide who my character would romance. I did pick one and I liked them a lot because of who they were, but the strict calendar put a damper on things way too much. You can also level up your personality skills with these social links such as charm or knowledge. The higher your skills the easier a lot of your interactions would be. The other thing I came to hate was that damn cat Morgana. After exploring a Palace or Mementos it would be evening and I'd want to go do something with my social links and Morgana would pipe up, "You must be tired. Let's go to sleep." I found myself wanting to yell at Morgana that I wasn't a little kid and I could do what I want. Morgana is the real prison warden in Persona 5 and I started to hate him every time he pulled that crap. It's why I worked on unlocking an ability via a social link that allowed me to ignore him and run around outside as much as I wanted after a dungeon run and Morgana couldn't stop me.

Social skills chart is important to level up.

The story while dark is an excellent one. There are twists and turns that leave you sitting on the edge of your seat wanting to know what will happen next. The villains of the story are fairly interesting, but one of them is a bit lacking because the reasoning for what they're doing is rather stupid and it's a weak writing point honestly. There are some strange translation issues as well which make the lines come across as cheesy or nonsensical. Then there is the disappointment in how a couple of gay characters are represented. They're not in the main story, but they're part of a social link quest and I was sad to see that they were basically reduced to mocking stereotypes and basically implied that they're predators to young people. This was not okay with me and just from discussion with a few of my friends who have played it, this wasn't okay with them either and one of my friends wondered why there was no same sex romance because it's not as if there are no LGBT people in Japan and felt there was a lack of representation of everyone. I agree, that is incredibly problematic. The other issue was with some of the dungeons. The first one was how much backtracking was involved in some of the later ones. Having to constantly backtrack made a dungeon feel longer than it actually was. Follow that with the ridiculous amount of puzzles that could make dungeons slow to a crawl especially in the final one which had constant irritating floor puzzles that sucked out all of the fun and made it tedious to the point where I just wanted to be done already. Both those things together detracted from the game experience a lot.

This isn't to say I didn't like Persona 5 because I did. It has a lot of good things such as a great story and fun game play within the dungeons as well as interesting puzzles. It's a good game, but not a perfect one. If you are a fan of the Persona series it is has all the bells and whistles that make it feel like a Persona game and it is fun to play through once just to see how the story turns out and getting the true ending. However, there are flaws that do stand out in a negative way and they need to be better than this. That being said, overall Persona 5 is an interesting adventure and worth checking out.

Persona 5 has some cool art style.

*Persona 5 is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 3 and Playstation 4

About Me

I'm married and a mother, but manage to find time for my gaming, writing, and film viewing. I'm also a huge nerd when it comes to anything with Hello Kitty or giant robots. It's a living. Mother Gamer is just my opinion about my personal gaming experience and other nerdy things I love. You may not agree and that's okay. Variety is what makes the world an awesome place. Happy gaming!